PHILADELPHIA – Twenty-five years after the Dodgers last ran into Philadelphia in a National League Championship Series, Gary Matthews Sr. was asked on Wednesday about his performance in that best-of-five series, which the Phillies won in four games. Matthews, who at the time was an aging outfielder widely thought to be in the twilight of his career, wound up as the series’ Most Valuable Player after leading his veteran-laden (some would say old) club to an improbable World Series berth.

“Things just clicked,” said Matthews, now 58 and a Phillies broadcaster. “You never really know what is going to happen. You always feel going in that you’re going to have a good series, but you don’t know that.

“Things just went well for me. I had Mike Schmidt hitting behind me, so when I got to the plate, half my work was already done. Now, I just had to look for pitches I was able to hit and try to square them up.”

The point is, no one could have predicted that Matthews would thrash Dodgers pitching for a .429 average, three home runs and eight RBIs in four games.

Along those lines, no one can predict what is going to happen beginning tonight, when the Dodgers and Phillies meet in their fourth NLCS – and first since that forgettable (for the Dodgers) 1983 series.

This best-of-seven matchup will feature no shortage of heroes, but who will they be? It will offer plenty of drama, but in what form? It will be rife with compelling storylines, but they have yet to reveal themselves.

Well, actually, one already bubbled to the surface following the Dodgers’ official workout. Takashi Saito, the once-dependable closer who has saved 81 games for the Dodgers over the past three seasons, is in danger of being left off the roster for this series because of a mechanical issue that has plagued him since he was activated from the disabled list on Sept. 13.

Saito struggled in his only division series appearance against Chicago, failing to retire any of the three batters he faced when he entered with a nine-run lead in Game 2, and he clearly has lost the closer’s role to Jonathan Broxton, who made three hitless appearances over three innings against the Cubs.

“Right now, with the way Broxton pitched (in the Game 3 clincher), he certainly embraced that opportunity,” Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. “Right now, I think Sammy (Saito) is fighting it a little bit. I don’t think there is anything physically wrong with him, but it just looks like he is trying to overthrow everything.”

Saito went to the bullpen with Torre and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt and threw a side session after the Dodgers’ workout, at a point when most of his teammates already had left Citizens Bank Park and returned to the team’s downtown hotel.

“The reason for (that) was (to determine) if I will be on the roster or not,” Saito said, with Kenji Nimura translating. “I am never going to say I am (off) the roster, but it’s for them to decide. Joe and the coaching staff might want me to give it some time, work on my mechanics and be ready for the World Series.”

Saito’s immediate answer to his mechanical issue, which involves his balance when pitching out of the windup, is to scrap the windup altogether and pitch entirely out of the stretch. But that alone won’t get him a roster spot, and if Saito isn’t the closer, it isn’t clear where he fits, if he fits at all.

The Dodgers need to clear a roster spot for left-handed reliever Hong-Chih Kuo, whose elbow has been deemed physically sound after he threw off a mound on Sunday and pitched a simulated game on Tuesday. A second left-hander in the bullpen is essential against the Phillies because of Ryan Howard, a left-handed batter who hit 34 of his major league-leading 48 homers this season against right-handers.

The addition of Kuo as a complement to Joe Beimel means rookie lefty Clayton Kershaw is a candidate to start Game 4. Veteran right-hander Greg Maddux and Game 1 starter Derek Lowe, on three days’ rest, are the other possibilities.

“A lot of (that) will depend on what we need to win the next few games,” Torre said after announcing that his first three starters will be, to the surprise of no one, Lowe, Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda. “I think we can make a decision from there.”

The roster must be set by 10 a.m. today. Torre said the addition of Kuo probably will be the only change. He also said that he will juggle the lineup for Game 1 against Phillies’ lefty Cole Hamels, moving left-handed-hitting right fielder Andre Ethier to the No. 2 spot, righty-hitting catcher Russell Martin to fourth and lefty-hitting third baseman Blake DeWitt from seventh to eighth to create more of an alternating left-right-left look throughout the lineup (right-handed-hitting Manny Ramirez and Martin will still hit back-to-back).

The batting order is expected to revert to its usual alignment against Game 2 starter Brett Myers, a right-hander.

Beyond that, though, it is anyone’s guess as to what will transpire over the next several days. This is a series that appears so evenly matched that there is no clear favorite, no underlying theme and no preconditions.

Both clubs come in playing arguably their best baseball of the season. Both clubs have potent lineups, deep rotations and dependable bullpens.

A quarter century ago, Matthews came out of left field, both literally and figuratively, to dominate a Dodgers-Phillies NLCS in which the respective clubs’ rosters were dotted with far bigger stars than him. This one might produce another surprise hero, or it might not. It might feature seven games of unbearable tension, or it might turn into a lopsided blowout. It might be dominated by pitching, or it might be an offensive showcase.